Terrifying fires put life into perspective for Australian Oscar winner

Australian cinematographer Greig Fraser had been back in Los Angeles for just a day last week, driving between meetings, when he noticed a strange cloud of smoke in the distance.

“Within an hour and a half, thousands of homes had gone,” he says, voice croaky from a chest infection he puts down to the terrible air quality during the devastating fires that have claimed at least 24 lives.

Dune star Josh Brolin (left) and Greig Fraser in November. Credit: Hoda Davaine/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Warner Bros.

“It was so fast – it came through quickly and just kept going, and it hasn’t stopped. It’s been terrifying for everyone.”

Fraser, who won an Oscar for Dune: Part One and is widely tipped to get another nomination for Dune: Part Two later this month, considers himself lucky.

His home in Los Angeles is in Venice Beach, well away from the fires. And after a week watching the catastrophe unfold, he has returned to London for work. He shot the Ryan Gosling sci-fi movie Project Hail Mary there before Christmas and is starting an undisclosed new project.

“If you imagined those bushfires were in the Melbourne CBD – or the Sydney CBD – it’s pretty much like that,” Fraser says. “It’s got the same level of impact as fires going through Fitzroy, Collingwood and Carlton. It’s scary, and my heart goes out to people who have been directly affected.”

The fires have cast a pall over so much of life in Los Angeles. They are yet another blow to a film and TV industry already affected by COVID, Hollywood strikes and productions being lured to other parts of the world. They are now disrupting the awards season that helps attract audiences to films.

Fraser says the fires have shown what really matters.

“While it’s important that we celebrate good work and celebrate artists in our industry, clearly that’s not the priority right now,” he says. “The priority is to support people who have lost [homes and livelihoods].

“Life is going to go on – we know that – and awards have to happen and they will happen. But the mood is the less we can be talking about it right now, the better. The more we can help people who need help, the better.”

Cinematographer Greig Fraser films a scene with Timothee Chalamet on the set of Dune. Credit: Warner Bros

But there is one honour that Fraser is happy to talk about.

The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts has announced he will receive the Byron Kennedy Award for his outstanding contribution to the screen industry. Overseen by director George Miller in honour of his late Mad Max producing partner, the award has been won by such talents as Jane Campion, Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, John Clarke and Bruna Papandrea over the years.

“Greig Fraser is the latest in the succession of eminent Australian cinematographers who have made their mark on world cinema,” Miller says. “He is dauntless in his embrace of new technologies in the cause of his art and consistently brings a narratively powerful aesthetic to the work.”

The award reflects Fraser’s rise in Hollywood: shooting Zero Dark Thirty, Lion, which gave him his first Oscar nomination, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Vice, The Mandalorian, which won him an Emmy, The Batman, and The Creator, which he co-produced. When they are ready to shoot, he is likely to be working on The Batman Part II and Dune: Part Three.

Fraser calls the Byron Kennedy Award “an incredible honour”, especially given Miller’s long-time excellence as a filmmaker.

“My job is to stay in the shadows, put my head down, my bum up and make myself invisible but make my work stand out,” he says. “I’m going to be accepting with [great] gratitude.”

The award will be presented at the AACTA Awards on the Gold Coast on February 7.

But before then, the Oscar nominations will be announced on January 24 Australian time after two postponements because of the fires.

Fraser (crouching) on the set of Dune as director Denis Villeneuve looks on.

Australia’s best chances for a nomination are Fraser, Guy Pearce (The Brutalist) for best supporting actor and Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail for best animated feature.

There are also hopes for Nicole Kidman (Babygirl), editors Eliot Knapman and Margaret Sixel (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga) and the visual effects team for Better Man.

Fraser is playing down his chances.

“I think the history is against the idea of a nomination,” he says. “[I’m told] that if a first film has won an Oscar, a sequel won’t be nominated. The Lord of the Rings wasn’t. Avatar wasn’t.”

But the fires that he calls apocalyptic, which have left him feeling his lungs are full of ash and concerned about what will happen until the multiple blazes are contained, have made the Oscars feel distant.

“Most people I know who have lost their homes still have each other,” he says. “You can’t replace life.”

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